“It Happened One Christmas” is a reworking of the 1946 Frank Capra
classic “It's A Wonderful Life”
On Christmas Eve 1944 in the small town of Bedford Falls, New York. A
despondent and suicidal Mary Bailey Hatch is praying for guidance on what to do
about an incident, no fault of her own, which threatens her name and the
community standing of her long-time family business, the Bailey Building and
Loan.
The film is a slightly dark almost bittersweet tale of a savings and
loan manager, and a bit an Earnest do-gooder Mary Bailey Hatch (Marlo Thomas)
who struggles against a greedy banker Henry F. Potter (Orson Welles) and her
own self-doubting nature in a small town.
After suffering a financial catastrophe, she sees suicide as a
possible solution to her predicament, only to be rescued by a whimsical,
endearing, trainee-angel named Clara Oddbody (Cloris Leachman) and because Mary
says that the world would have been better off if she was never born, Clara
shows her what the lives of the people she loved would have been like if Mary
had never been born, Mary’s husband George (Wayne Rogers), Uncle Willie (Barney
Martin), Mr. Gower (Dick O'Neill), Ma Bailey (Doris Roberts), Peter Bailey
(Richard Dysart) and Harry Bailey (Christopher Guest).
And after years of feeling trapped in a small-town Mary finally
recognizes her life as wonderful and truly rich.
